DC-8 over London

[Golf-Mike-Mike]

I flew over Lyneham yesterday (Feb17 at 1210Z) and a DC8 with white fuselage and silver wings was parked on the ramp with 11 C130s. Other sites report 9G-AXA/AXB as regular flyers from Lyneham to/from Ostend and Turkey.

[V2-OMG!]

Wow! I haven't seen a DC-8 since Canadian Pacific's "Flying Mandarins"
ruled the Canada - Pacific Rim routes.

BTW....this is my first post. Don't you love the handle??
I suspect I am one of the females here that loves to talk aviation. Will I be safe here....or will it be akin to a never-ending V2? lol!

[WHBM]

Welcome on board V2-OMG. If you recall the Canadian Pacific DC8s you might also have chosen "Empress" !

Last one of those I saw was in Vancouver in 1969. They changed their corporate style to CP Air in 1967 with the bold new livery, but in 1969 there was at least one still in the old scheme.

[twb3]

DC-8s

I well remember a DFW-MSY flight aboard a Delta DC-8-61 in '76. As my seat was well aft, the most impressive thing was the degree of fuselage flexing that was apparent from that vantage point.

Tom

[V2-OMG!]

WHBM, thank-you for the welcome!

And yes...I remember the "Empress" series of DC-8s, as my best friend's father flew for CP Air which later went back to its original name of Canadian Pacific before being bought out and obliterated by Air Canada.

[manstonman]

Here's my wind assisted wobbly video of African DC-8 ZS-OSI landing at Manston during an engine test. http://www.4shared.com/file/34112176...de/ZS-OSI.html

[Lobo3]

D-C 8 Flight!

I once flew to London from Montreal on an Air Canada D C 8 in 72? The funniest thing about the flight was when we arrived over London,the little old Lady who was sitting beside me commented"Well we can't crash now!"We could see the yellow street lamps of London below and I asked why this was so,She answered"We are over the city so it just cannot happen!"This has remained with me all these years and still I chuckle on remembering it!

[dixi188]

DHL DC8-73's are often in Brussels on Sundays.

[rhino11]

Yesterday morning at Lyneham

[SpringHeeledJack]

I was bobbing around in the rough seas on saturday 8th march, around 17.30-17.45pm, 30 miles north of Dublin and a classic '8' flew slowly over my position, white body, blue ?/ black ? tail and white 'classic' engines. It was headed in the direction of The Isle of Man and points beyond, ENE approx. It didn't seem to be coming out of Dublin, though who knows and it wasn't climbing, more descending from my side view. It looked great in the blue sky with the slowly setting sun lighting it up nicely.

Anyone know the who/what/where/why ? My guess was a horse charter.


Regards


SHJ

[SpringHeeledJack]

I resurrected this thread due to my unanswered question (above) and was prompted to do so by a recent thread here about a DC-8 that was seen landing in Baldonnel military aerodrome (Dublin) to freight equipment for the Irish Army to Africa, if I recall. Due to the runway length it was then flying to Shannon (shades of 'wrongway Corrigan' ) to fuel up and head to the dark continent.

Well that would fit with what I had seen though mine was heading towards perhaps Prestwick in the descent and had appeared to have been low level for a while. Anyone able to confirm ? Also the tail was dark, either blue or black with a white roundel and that doesn't correspond with either of the companies that are still operating the old girl into the UK/Ireland. Any ideas ? The world will keep turning, but one's curiosity would like to be fed


Regards


SHJ

[Slats One]

My weekly Dc-8 fix

My house is directly under one of the final leg turn points for Lyneham, so, up-to - several times a week, I get that lovely long body, long podded DC8 whistling over at 1,000 ft. So elegant- not a VC10 of course, but second best to, in my view. And all the locals think its an A340....

The wing with no slats - with just its simple rear flaps and those long pylons and pods looks great - a knife edge in the sky.

The KLM DC-8s were great- especially the ones to Africa.

Nostalgia.

[Panop]

DC-8

Pan Am in the early 1960s had equally-sized fleets of DC8s and 707s, until they sold off the DC8s in the late 1960s and replaced them with more 707s. Unfortunately all their timetables of the period just state 707/DC8 for everything so not apparent which type was used for their longstanding PA1/2 round-the-world flights. Due to the need to slip crews along the way they presumably kept to one type. Certainly through London in the 1960s they seem to have used half-and-half of each type.

I don't think the 8s ever were used on the PanAm RTW (Round the World) flights (which actually were not quite round the world because PanAm did not have US domestic rights then so PA1 was LAX-JFK and PA2 was JFK-LAX - both the very long way!). The same aircraft did not always go the whole way with maintenance issues, etc, so it is possible that 8s were substituted now and again on the LHR-JFK legs, etc. Pretty sure there was a period in the early 70s when 747s operated daily JFK-LHR-JFK and 707s the rest of the way - or at least to the Far East (probably TYO) where, I think, 74s took over again for the Pacific hop.

My personal DC-8 experiences were a bit eclectic - in 1970 Frankfurt - Heathrow in a Delta DC-8-30 operating a PanAm flight, 1971 Oslo (FBU) - Copenhagen in an SAS DC-8-63 (last very short hop of a long haul flight - from LAX I think - seemed a waste of such a beast - the interior was like looking along a very long tunnel - most unusual), 1972 Marseilles - Le Bourget in a UTA DC-8-62 (final leg of a UTA African flight) and, best of all, in 1972 JFK - LAX in a United DC-8-21 (which had been converted from an -11 so was a very early machine and nearing the end of its mainline days).

The UA flight was exceptionally pleasant as it was in First Class and FREE (I won the flight as a prize!).

Nice planes to fly in (rather 'grand' and spacious) but the -63 just didn't 'feel' right to me - just a bit too stretched.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Panop

I don't think the 8s ever were used on the PanAm RTW (Round the World) flights .........Pretty sure there was a period in the early 70s when 747s operated daily JFK-LHR-JFK and 707s the rest of the way - or at least to the Far East (probably TYO) where, I think, 74s took over again for the Pacific hop.

Found out a bit more since I wrote this. The same crews did not fly both the 707 and the DC8, so the DC8 was principally operated out of the New York base, although there were also some DC8 crews at Miami, for the National-Pan Am-Panagra through plane interchange service to the west coast of South America, as the other two partners only had DC8s, not 707s. Both these bases also had 707 crews, as well as 727s. The Pacific was all 707. The 720s were exclusively Miami. London was served by both DC8 and 707, but at smaller points it was obviously necessary to keep to one type or the other as crews always slipped for a day or two. The longest Pan Am dominance of all-DC8 appears to have been the New York to Africa flights.

The Round-the-World was always a bit theoretical, even back in prop aircraft days it often had one, if not two, changes of type along the way, and DC8s on the Atlantic section would be common in the earlier jet days.

[dc9-32]

In 1992, I had the pleasure of flying cockpit jump-seat on board a Translift Airways DC8-71 from STN-CDG-CAY and return 2 days later. Superb aircraft.....